Malinda Kyrkos and Roger Cox in search of the spice of life.	Eric Caron and Joe Doughan forge an alliance.

Like Father Like Son ...

Attendance was up significantly this year, with a record 13 qualifying games played. Despite this, only one player expressed interest in playing Rex, so that was unfortunately not played at all. Given the continued dedication of the WBC attendees to Dune alone, I do not expect to bother offering Rex as an option next year.
The average game this year lasted 7.2 game turns over 4.4 hours, very close to the overall 12-year average. The Bene Gesserit returned to the top of the heap, participating in more wins than any other faction, but the Harkonnen, normally a frequent winner, took it on the chin and recorded the most losses. The Fremen and the Atreides climbed, both registering strong mid-tier results along with the Guild and the Emperor.

A number of players recommended limiting alliances to at most two factions next year, feeling that it may be "too easy" to win as part of a 3-faction alliance. While it is true that six out of 13 qualifying games resulted in 3-way victories this year, only about a third of all recorded games have been won by 3-way alliances. There is also concern that 2-way victories may be too difficult to come by, which could result in a new increase in Guild/Fremen default victories. (See this year's Final.) Nonetheless, player perceptions are important, and elimination of 3-way alliances will be considered next year.

Due to the plan to support both Rex and Dune, Best Faction plaques were not provided this year, but the winners of these coveted awards would have been: Bill Dyer, both best Atreides and best Guild; Mark Brody, best BG; Rob Murray, best Emperor; Paul Weintraub, best Fremen; and Matt Fagan, best Harkonnen. Since Rex ended up not panning out, I will try to provide retroactive awards next year.

"Grueling" is the only word that can describe the 15-turn, 14-hour championship game! Bill Dyer drew Atreides (his personal favorite), James Denam returned for the second year to take the BG, Glenn McMaster got the Emperor, Lee Proctor the Fremen, Jacob Dyer (Bill's son) the Guild, and Chris Bennett the Harkonnen. With a pair of 2-time champions involved, it was destined to be a brutal game from the start. At least four different alliance configurations battled to get the win, and then were forced to battle to prevent others from winning when they were stopped. Casualties were severe. By the late game, most of the tokens and many leaders were in the tanks, and most factions were playing with just a few revived tokens each turn. It became nearly impossible for any faction to exert dominance, with the leading alliance always being beaten back by the cooperation of the other four. In the end, the Guild, who had been laying low and clearly playing for the stalemate from the beginning, won a 2-way default victory with the help of his Emperor ally. Congratulations to Jake on his victory -- perhaps Dune aptitude is an inherited trait!

Matt Fagan and Marissa Bianco try to avoid the worm.	The six finalists at work in the cool Wheatland room.